{"id":19422,"date":"2019-02-11T18:16:57","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T18:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?p=19422"},"modified":"2020-07-30T12:54:44","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T11:54:44","slug":"emoji-ratings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/emoji-ratings\/","title":{"rendered":"Stars in their eyes \u2013 why we changed our emoji ratings"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all know the importance of measuring the quality of your interactions with your customers.<\/p>\n

Asking for feedback from customers helps managers spot and reward star performers and identify opportunities to improve the quality of support their team provides. There are numerous industry standards for this \u2013 Customer Effort Score (CES), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), etc. At Intercom, we built what we call \u201cconversation ratings\u201d.<\/p>\n

When working on this feature over two years ago<\/a>, we wanted to design a solution that was in line with our mission, making internet business personal. Thus, while we explored options such as simple thumbs up\/thumbs down designs and five-star satisfaction ratings, it was no surprise that we were really drawn to using an emoji scale, with a row of faces \u2013 \ud83d\ude20 \ud83d\ude41 \ud83d\ude10 \ud83d\ude03 \ud83d\ude0d \u2013 representing a five-point scale from \u201cTerrible\u201d to \u201cAmazing\u201d. The prototype was well received by both our own teammates and end users.<\/p>\n

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Managers felt it allowed them to better understand how their customers felt, and end users felt it was modern and fun, and offered clarity around what they were being asked. While most feedback was positive, there were some customers who felt it was too expressive or not professional enough for their business.<\/p>\n

However, after thoughtful consideration of the pros and cons of each solution, we decided to pursue the emojis as our mode of conversation rating. As we put it at the time, \u201cUsing emoji faces felt expressive, modern and in line with the Intercom messenger style.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why were people reluctant to send \ud83d\ude0d?<\/h2>\n

Before we shipped the feature, we expected customers to ask to allow them to customize or change the emoji set altogether. Surprisingly, when we carried out the research a couple of months later, this was not a common request. However, we did discover that 30% of the conversations we analyzed included a request to kill \ud83d\ude0d. As avid users of this emoji at Intercom, we were a little confused by the request.<\/p>\n

As time went by, it became apparent why our customers wanted to change the heart eyes emoji specifically:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/codykeith\/status\/1049667345436856321<\/p>\n

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Not sure this customer support rating system by @intercom<\/a> with emojis is a good idea. I\u2019m not giving my support rep heart eyes but I would of given him 5 stars. pic.twitter.com\/6UTuGFZpBm<\/a><\/p>\n

— MODassic (@modassic) August 1, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n